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PAMPHLETS 


ON 


THE   COUNTRY  CirORCH 


vol.    2 


mitli  tt|p  dnuutrg 
OIl]itrrt|  Program 


W.   L.    MUDGE 


\^^^HE  Country  Church  Program  advocated  by 
i  ^  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Home  Missions 
^^^  through  its  Department  of  Church  and  Coun- 
try Life  has  been  well  tested  in  the  Presbytery  of 
Huntingdon,  Pa.  It  was  this  Presbytery  that  two 
years  ago  suggested  to  the  Board  the  possibility  of 
a  country  church  program  which  should  outline  the 
needs  of  rural  districts  and  emphasize  the  oppor- 
tunity of  the  country  church. 

Situated  in  the  central  part  of  Pennsylvania, 
covering  seven  counties,  largely  rural,  Huntingdon 
Presbytery  is  an  ideal  locality  in  which  to  try  out 
such  a  program  of  action,  and  with  vigor  and  en- 
thusiam  they  have  been  at  this  task  for  a  year. 

What,  then,  are  some  of  the  results  which  have 
been  realized  and  the  benefits  which  have  been  de- 
rived from  this  definite  Program  in  this  brief  time? 

I.  It  Has  Given  New  Encouragement  to  Coun- 
try Pastors.  This  has  in  itself  been  a  sufficient 
recommendation  for  the  Program.  If  it  had  ac- 
complished nothing  else  it  would  have  been  well 
worth  while,  for  what  the  average  country  pastor 
needs  is  a  new  and  more  hopeful  spirit.  A  pastor 
has  written :  "One  of  the  convictions  which  has 
been  forced  upon  me  has  been  that  the  Country 
Church  is  capable  of  new  life  and  expansion,  no 
matter  how  discouraging  its  conditions  may  be 
financially  and  spiritually,  if  it  is  within  the  reach 
of  population." 


II.  It  Has  Cultivated  a  Closer  Fellowship 
AND  A  Spirit  of  Comradeship  Among  Country 
Pastors. 

They  have  been  brought  together  by  the  Pro- 
gram in  creating  a  common  standard  to  work  for 
and  a  comprehensive  plan  of  campaign.  The  coun- 
try pastor  is  overjoyed  that  his  problems  are  being 
recognized  by  others;  that  he  is  no  longer  left  to 
depressing  isolation,  but  that  these  very  problems 
are  not  peculiar  to  his  particular  field,  and  that 
others  are  seeking  to  aid  him  in  solving  them.  As 
one  has  remarked :  "The  greatest  benefit  that  I 
have  derived  from  the  Program  is  that  it  has  given 
me  greater  confidence  in  agitating  an  advance  along 
its  Hnes  to  know  that  my  course  has  the  approval 
of  a  body  of  specially  instructed  men  of  various 
churches  and  communities.  It  has  also  been  a  guide 
in  this  agitation." 

HI.  It  Has  Demonstrated  Most  Conclusively 
the  Need  of  a  More  Definite  and  Thorough 
Knowledge  of  Rural   Communities. 

Through  the  Department  of  Church  and  Country 
Life,  Rev.  T.  Maxwell  Morrison,  of  Bellona,  N.  Y., 
made  an  exhaustive  study  of  rural  conditions. 
Upon  the  basis  of  this  survey  the  Presbytery  is 
now  planning  its  work.  Besides  this  general  sur- 
vey, pastors  have  become  more  familiar  with  their 
own  fields.  One  who  has  been  ministering  to  two 
churches  for  over  ten  years  says:  "It  was  a  sur- 
prise to  me  to  find  so  many  people  in  this  place 
within  three  miles  of  about  ten  churches  who  had  so 
little,  if  any,  connection  with  our  regular  schools 
and  congregations.  It  has  stirred  me  up  to  get 
more  accurate  information  of  our  whole  section, 
with  the  purpose  of  urging  our  churches  and 
schools  to  greater  home  missionary  effort." 

IV.  It  Has  Caused  Pastors  More  Fully  to 
Understand  that  the  Country  Church  Can 
Accomplish  Its  Mission  Only  by  Serving  the 
Community. 

Writes  an  active  country  pastor:  "It  has  pro- 
moted 3.  broader  point  of  view  concerning  method, 
introducing  country  life  meetings,  interesting  school 
children  in  gardens,  planning  for  playgrounds,  estab- 
lishing a  'Social  Center'  building  in  the  village." 


V.  It  Has  Helped  to  Promote  Better  Educa- 
tional Opportunities. 

The  poor  schooling  facilities  of  rural  districts 
are  well  known.  The  multiplicity  of  small,  unsani- 
tary schoolhouses  betokens  a  wofully  inefficient  coun- 
try school  system.  In  one  community  a  movement 
has  been  started  to  organize  an  up-to-date,  graded, 
consolidated  school,  in  place  of  the  inadequate  one- 
room  school. 

VI.  It  Has  Called  Attention  to  the  Study  of 
Scientific   Agriculture. 

No  one  can  deny  that  this  is  vital  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  farmer,  and  that  his  prosperity  will 
affect  in  turn  the  prosperity  of  the  Country  Church. 
For  the  first  time  in  its  history  the  Pennsylvania 
State  College  has  held  a  "Conference  on  Rural 
Conditions,"  to  which  it  invited  pastors  and  mem- 
bers of  churches,  irrespective  of  denomination,  liv- 
ing in  Central  Pennsylvania.  The  co-operation  of 
this  well  known  and  widely  influential  institution 
will  be  invaluable. 

VII.  It  Has  Awakened  the  Country  Church 
TO  the  Importance  of  Regulating  and  Supervis- 
ing the  Social  Life  of  the  People. 

A  resolution  was  passed  at  the  Country  Church 
Conservation  Congress  attended  by  different  de- 
nominations within  the  bounds  ot  the  Presbytery : 
"The  Country  Church  has  an  opportunity  and  re- 
sponsibility in  the  matter  of  providing  and  direct- 
ing the  amusements  of  the  boys  and  girls  which  it 
dare  not  neglect."  A  pastor  has  recently  expressed 
the  matter  in  this  way:  "One  of  the  greatest  prob- 
lems of  the  present  day  for  the  Country  Church  is 
the  supervision  and  control  of  the  athletics  and 
amusements  of  our  young  people." 

VIII.  It  Has  Given  the  Presbytery  the  Cour- 
age TO  Face  Its  Responsibility  and  Increase  the 
Salaries  of  Its  Country  Pastors. 

Some  of  our  ministers  had  been  living  upon  the 
shameful  and  meager  salary  of  $600  and  $650  a 
year.  Now  the  minimum  is  $800  and  manse.  The 
blessing  this  increase  has  been  in  putting  new  life 
and  energy  into  the  efforts  of  the  country  pastor 
can  hardly  be  imagined  until  it  rs  actually  ex- 
perienced. 


IX.  It  Has  Encouraged  the  Spirit  of  Federation 
(vhich  the  Program  has  defined  as  "Co-operation 
everywhere  and  consolidation  somewhere."  A 
Country  Church  Conservation  Congress,  under  the 
supervision  of  Rev.  Warren  H.  Wilson,  Ph.D., 
Superintendent  of  the  Department  of  Church  and 
Country  Life,  was  held,  at  which  seven  denomina- 
tions were  represented  by  delegates,  and  the  prob- 
lems of  the  Country  Church  in  their  different  aspects 
were  discussed  by  specialists.  One  of  the  resolu- 
tions passed  at  this  Congress  recommended  the 
organization  of  local  Inter-church  federations.  Two 
of  the  seven  counties  of  the  Presbytery  have  now 
been  organized  and  others  will  soon  follow.  A 
State  Federation  has  also  been  formed,  and  it  is 
confidently  expected  that  some  plan  will  soon  be 
outlined  to  rectify  conditions  in  over-churched  dis- 
tricts. Splendid  progress  has  as  well  been  made  in 
fostering  the  spirit  of  comity.  The  Central  M.  E. 
Conference,  which  includes  within  its  boundaries 
most  of  the  area  of  the  Presbytery,  has  appointed 
a  committee  to  make  a  special  report  on  the  prob- 
lems of  the  Country  Church.  The  spirit  of  co- 
operation on  the  part  of  this  denomination  is  most 
encouraging. 

X.  It  Has  Shown  the  Absolute  Necessity  of 
A  Superintendent. 

The  Presbytery  has  just  secured  such  a  Superin- 
tendent who  will  oversee  this  large  and  growing 
work  of_  the  Kingdom,  and  one  of  his  most  impor- 
tant duties  will  be  to  stimulate  the  spiritual  life  of 
the  Country  Churches  by  means  of  evangelism, 
which,^  after  all,  is  a  fundamental  need,  so  recog- 
nized in  the  Country  Church  Program. 

If  the  head-waters  are  kept  pure  and  unpolluted 
the  streams  which  are  constantly  flowing  from  them 
rvill  be  of  the  same  character.  To  have  a  share  in 
mis  work  is  to  have  a  large  part  in  hastening  the 
time  when  these  streams  shall  become  a  mighty 
nver,  making  glad  the  city  of  our  God;  and  this  is 
not  a  small  part  of  the  duty  and  privilege  of  every 
minister  and  member  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ. 


Wm^-fi%sS. 


